1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to extra-planetary communications and more particularly to a radiation hardened modulator for high performance space-based near-Earth communications.
2. Background Description
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC) Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission requires a three hundred symbols per second (300 Msps) downlink data rate. NASA has mandated that all future “near Earth” (i.e., any spacecraft within one million kilometers of Earth) missions requiring more than 10 Megahertz (10 MHz) of downlink data bandwidth must operate in 25.5 to 27.0 Gigahertz (25.5-27.0 GHz). This falls in what is known as the Ka-band, ˜18-40 GHz.
There is no commercial transmitter that meets the SDO requirements. While high data-rate transmitters exist at what are known as the X-band (˜8 GHz) and Ku-band (˜15 GHz), no commercial spaceflight qualified transmitter had been able to transmit in the Ka-band.
Thus, there is a need for high data-rate transmitters capable of operating in the Ka-band.